Manufacturing news in brief
pharmafile | January 25, 2010 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Elona Biotech, Genzyme, Lupin, Patheon, State Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing, SurModics
Our round-up of developments in pharmaceutical manufacturing includes a new contract between Patheon and Sanofi-Aventis, hiring plans at Genzyme and facility news from Lupin Labs, Elona Biotech, Sri Lanka’s SPMC and SurModics.
Canadian contract manufacturer Patheon has extended its working relationship with Sanofi-Aventis, signing two separate five‐year manufacturing agreements with the pharmaceutical giant. These agreements concern products manufactured at Patheon’s Swindon site in the UK and Bourgoin-Jallieu facilities in France. Meanwhile, Patheon has said it intends to expand the French production plant in order to manufacture phase III and commercial products, something which at present is only possible at the group’s North American facilities.
Genzyme‘s manufacturing woes could be good news for workers in the biologics manufacturing arena, as the recent cases of contamination at its Allston Landing plant have prompted a recruitment drive. Genzyme chief executive Henri Termeer has said he wants to boost headcount by 500 this year, with the beneficiaries its headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Allston Landing and Framingham production plants, according to a Boston Globe article.
Kenta Biotech of Switzerland has entered an agreement with Germany’s Rentschler Biotechnologie for the development of a fully human monoclonal antibody against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Using Kenta’s hybridoma cell line, Rentschler will develop a manufacturing process for Kenta’s KBSA301 antibody using single-use bioreactor technology.
India’s Lupin Laboratories has given a green light from the US Food and Drug Administration for its plant at Mandideep in Madhya Pradesh, clearing the path for it to start selling new products made at the plant in the US market. Last year the facility received a warning letter from the FDA after an inspection found a number of deficiencies at the plant, which makes a range of active pharmaceutical ingredients including cephalosporin antibiotics.
Elona Biotechnologies has said it will invest $28 million in the construction and validation of a 50,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility in Greenwood, Indiana, that would produce biosimilar insulin-based products using a streamlined production process that should allow it to significantly reduce the cost of goods. The company says the expansion will add 70 jobs.
Sri Lanka’s State Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Corp has opened a new manufacturing, packaging and storage facility in Ratmalana that will manufacture 59 essential drugs both for domestic use and export to other markets. The plant’s capacity is 500 million tablets a year and it cost around $6 million to set up and outfit, according to local news reports.
US drug delivery and coated medical device company SurModics has opened its manufacturing facility in Birmingham, Alabama, that will support several recently announced partnerships, including one with Roche/Genentech to develop a sustained drug delivery formulation of the age-related macular degeneration treatment Lucentis (ranibizumab injection).
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